“There are bees in every hive with inherent imperfections: they cannot navigate from the directions given by others. They fly off everywhere. They are always getting lost. They never gather much pollen. Yet, by an incongruous twist of fate, these bees can still dance directions to others. And so they occasionally return from their misguided wanderings with delirious gospel of what they have found. Good god, what they have found! It is the lost bee who finds new flowers.”
–Jack Haas
What have you found by getting lost?
Last Nov., I had been feeling unsettled, especially about which direction to take my professional life, e.g. what project to do next, etc. Then, the election threw me into a state of shock, grief and despair unlike any I had experienced before. I felt even more lost and ambivalent. But the long term upshot of that period of time is that I did find my direction. Although political developments still concern me, in some ways, I feel more at peace than even before the election. I was invited to speak about this “Midcourse Correction” at the UU Fellowship of Galveston County. If anybody wants to hear my talk, which explains the lost and found experience in greater detail. here’s a link: http://persuasioncoach.com/2017/01/mid-course-corrections/
Thanks, Margaret, I’ll read it!
Thanks. It’s actually a link to the audio recording the church made, not a text version. I will look forward to hearing what you think.
I “lost” an earlier rather lengthy response but lateness and lack of energy is here so I’ll get back soon with a response to your presentation. How fortunate I am to receive such interesting thoughts from you.
Here I m again. I especially liked your discussion of a win-win result between two forces; why, oh why must “we” always consider that competition is the way to solve differences? Today, we had a small group discussion at UUF covering the monthly theme of Joy. One of the results voiced was that we each had time to talk and say what was on our mind without being involved in a tit for tat discussion. She said it was so calming to have time to speak and not have to expect a response or interruption or judgment. I liked it too.
Your interjection about the role of women’s roles vs men’s attitudes especially in business is interesting; I have always felt that I could have my say in conferences but I guess some other women don’t. I have felt however, that there have been times when they “really didn’t listen to me”. Too sad. Perhaps some day…
Thanks so much for listening to my talk. You are right in that women have made great strides in our lifetimes. One remaining problem, as I see it, is that there is a great deal of difference between individual women getting air time at meetings, on the one hand, and a society’s culture striking a true balance between the typical women’s collaborative ways of dealing with one another and men’s competitive ways. Men have been have been in charge for so long and so many of our social structures–business models, political systems, and even church polity–are competition based.
This “lost and found” event happened years ago in London and involved others with me. My friend Mella and I were visiting the UK; she had been a Fulbright Scholar some years before and knew her way around a bit. We were in the underground planning our way to the Victoria/Albert Concert Hall. A young woman of color appeared forlorn standing nearby. We asked her if we could help: she said that she was a student from the Caribbean and living with the Belgian Sisters. Her mother was visiting and when the two were on the way to visit her uncle that morning, she had gotten separated from her mother in the underground station. Asking the station master was absolutely no help. We gazed at the wall map and at some point she seemed to recognize something familiar about where she was living. We went with her and got off at a stop that seemed right to her and aha!! she said excitedly “This is the street!”. When we walked into the courtyard of the home, her mother with tears and hugs was at the door in a second for they had been separated all the long day. A sense of relief for all of us and Mella and I even arrived at the concert hall in time!
What a lovely story.